About Us

Why We Are

The National Association for Family Child Care (NAFCC) is a nationwide non-profit organization dedicated to promoting high quality child care by strengthening the profession of family child care for nearly one million paid home-based early learning programs serving almost 40% of the 6.7 million children who receive care from a nonrelative on a regular basis.

Since 1982, NAFCC has been supporting family child care throughout the country as educators make the intentional choice to offer high quality early care and education in their homes. NAFCC collaborates with local, state and national organizations to increase the awareness of and improve the quality of family child care.

NAFCC strengthens the profession by advocating for the needs of practitioners and the families they serve, providing an identifiable national voice for all members and promoting a professional accreditation credential which recognizes and encourages high quality care and education in home-based settings.

Family Child care – Where love and learning are at home!

We believe that FCC is a foundational part of the early care and education delivery system, and that family child care should be intentionally included in all systems planning including workforce development, community supports, small business supports, and K-12 education. Therefore, there should be:

Equal pay for educators regardless of the learning setting
Comprehensive services, including mental health resources, should be made accessible to all home-based early learning programs.
Quality markers informed by equity and are relevant and applicable to home-based settings
Standards designed with practitioners from home-based settings

Mission

NAFCC supports and leverages a nationwide network of providers and partners in expanding and promoting the power of family child care, by connecting practice, policy, and research. We promote quality reflective of diverse, dynamic early childhood professionals and support all who care for, educate, and work on behalf of young children in home-based settings.

Vision

NAFCC seeks to amplify the authentic voice of our members to attract supporters, and ultimately improve the quality and state of early care and education.